government shutdown? does it not comprehend it's not merely the nation's credit rating that's at risk from the debt ceiling debacle, but the full faith and credit of the republic itself? how long can we shrug off this grand canyon plunge that's coming? as we did again with another benign day, dow tipped 24 points, and nasdaq advanced .22%. this is behavior. is the market actually smarter than you and i think? i'm starting to believe the latter and tonight i'm going to tell you why. first, i don't necessarily want to invest in a country if it doesn't pay its bills. deadbeat country, but i don't mind if it can pay its bills but for a moment refuses to. constitution says it must honor its debts no matter what. i believe passionately that we will pay debts in a timely fashion. congress is supposed to hold the purse strings, but the american people are less stupid than washington thinks they are. they lived through another one of these scares. that time, we were frightened, frightened about what a ratings agen